This spring, NCAA coaches enjoyed a major deregulation of recruiting bylaws, allowing them to head out to AAU events for an evaluation period.

On June 15, another major change is coming.

Beginning on that date, coaches will be able to make an unlimited—yes, unlimited—number of phone calls and text messages to prospects who have finished their sophomore year of high school.

Currently, coaches can place only one call per month to a prospect from June 15 after his sophomore year to July 31 after his junior year. Here is the messy part of the rulebook that is full of loopholes: though coaches are limited in how many times they can reach out, players may call coaches as often as they like.

Though players may now be inundated with phone calls and text messages, deregulation is the right move for the NCAA. With the more increased focus on transfer rates and the ability of players to get to know a program before committing and heading to school, the more communication, the better.

Trying to regulate something as small as phone calls and text messages seems like a useless endeavor. As players feel more comfortable with a certain coach and can interact with them more often, they can get a better grasp on which schools truly want them and which have categorized them as an “option” more than a “priority.”

These rollbacks in enforcement are welcome. They actually put more power in the hands of players and parents to make decisions about their futures.

As an IU Fan… The NCAA looks quite hypocritical here. Granted, rules are rules but when you punish a coach one year and kick him out of the sport for 5 years under certain rules and then amend those rules just a few years later making those infractions allowable, how are we supposed to take NCAA’s supposed “justice” seriously?

That IU squad was Top 10, in the running for a Big Ten Title and looking at a 2-3 seed before the NCAA went berserk on Sampson tarnishing a 2 time COY and a historic program with a spotless record who was a possible contender.

So it turns out IU Fans were right all along… “They’re just phone calls”.